📝 您未登录，登录后完成练习可保存成绩、查看最佳记录。
总字符
0
正确字符
0
错误字符
0
错误率
0.00%
耗时(秒)
0
速度 WPM
0
0 / 71
1HOW MANY KINDS OF SOLDIERY THERE ARE, AND CONCERNING MERCENARIES Having discoursed particularly on the characteristics
2of such principalities as in the beginning I proposed to discuss, and having considered in some degree the causes of
3there being good or bad, and having shown the methods by which many have sought to acquire them and to hold them, it now
4remains for me to discuss generally the means of offence and defence which belong to each of them. We have seen above
5how necessary it is for a prince to have his foundations well laid, otherwise it follows of necessity he will go to
6ruin. The chief foundations of all states, new as well as old or composite, are good laws and good arms; and as there
7cannot be good laws where the state is not well armed, it follows that where they are well armed they have good laws. I
8shall leave the laws out of the discussion and shall speak of the arms. I say, therefore, that the arms with which a
9prince defends his state are either his own, or they are mercenaries, auxiliaries, or mixed. Mercenaries and auxiliaries
10are useless and dangerous; and if one holds his state based on these arms, he will stand neither firm nor safe; for they
11are disunited, ambitious, and without discipline, unfaithful, valiant before friends, cowardly before enemies; they have
12neither the fear of God nor fidelity to men, and destruction is deferred only so long as the attack is; for in peace one
13is robbed by them, and in war by the enemy. The fact is, they have no other attraction or reason for keeping the field
14than a trifle of stipend, which is not sufficient to make them willing to die for you. They are ready enough to be your
15soldiers whilst you do not make war, but if war comes they take themselves off or run from the foe; which I should have
16little trouble to prove, for the ruin of Italy has been caused by nothing else than by resting all her hopes for many
17years on mercenaries, and although they formerly made some display and appeared valiant amongst themselves, yet when the
18foreigners came they showed what they were. Thus it was that Charles, King of France, was allowed to seize Italy with
19chalk in hand;[1] and he who told us that our sins were the cause of it told the truth, but they were not the sins he
20imagined, but those which I have related. And as they were the sins of princes, it is the princes who have also suffered
21the penalty. [1] "With chalk in hand," "col gesso." This is one of the bons mots of Alexander VI, and refers to the ease
22with which Charles VIII seized Italy, implying that it was only necessary for him to send his quartermasters to chalk up
23the billets for his soldiers to conquer the country. Cf. "The History of Henry VII," by Lord Bacon: "King Charles had
24conquered the realm of Naples, and lost it again, in a kind of a felicity of a dream. He passed the whole length of
25Italy without resistance: so that it was true what Pope Alexander was wont to say: That the Frenchmen came into Italy
26with chalk in their hands, to mark up their lodgings, rather than with swords to fight." I wish to demonstrate further
27the infelicity of these arms. The mercenary captains are either capable men or they are not; if they are, you cannot
28trust them, because they always aspire to their own greatness, either by oppressing you, who are their master, or others
29contrary to your intentions; but if the captain is not skilful, you are ruined in the usual way. And if it be urged that
30whoever is armed will act in the same way, whether mercenary or not, I reply that when arms have to be resorted to,
31either by a prince or a republic, then the prince ought to go in person and perform the duty of a captain; the republic
32has to send its citizens, and when one is sent who does not turn out satisfactorily, it ought to recall him, and when
33one is worthy, to hold him by the laws so that he does not leave the command. And experience has shown princes and
34republics, single-handed, making the greatest progress, and mercenaries doing nothing except damage; and it is more
35difficult to bring a republic, armed with its own arms, under the sway of one of its citizens than it is to bring one
36armed with foreign arms. Rome and Sparta stood for many ages armed and free. The Switzers are completely armed and quite
37free. Of ancient mercenaries, for example, there are the Carthaginians, who were oppressed by their mercenary soldiers
38after the first war with the Romans, although the Carthaginians had their own citizens for captains. After the death of
39Epaminondas, Philip of Macedon was made captain of their soldiers by the Thebans, and after victory he took away their
40liberty. Duke Filippo being dead, the Milanese enlisted Francesco Sforza against the Venetians, and he, having overcome
41the enemy at Caravaggio,[2] allied himself with them to crush the Milanese, his masters. His father, Sforza, having been
42engaged by Queen Johanna[3] of Naples, left her unprotected, so that she was forced to throw herself into the arms of
43the King of Aragon, in order to save her kingdom. And if the Venetians and Florentines formerly extended their dominions
44by these arms, and yet their captains did not make themselves princes, but have defended them, I reply that the
45Florentines in this case have been favoured by chance, for of the able captains, of whom they might have stood in fear,
46some have not conquered, some have been opposed, and others have turned their ambitions elsewhere. One who did not
47conquer was Giovanni Acuto,[4] and since he did not conquer his fidelity cannot be proved; but every one will
48acknowledge that, had he conquered, the Florentines would have stood at his discretion. Sforza had the Bracceschi always
49against him, so they watched each other. Francesco turned his ambition to Lombardy; Braccio against the Church and the
50kingdom of Naples. But let us come to that which happened a short while ago. The Florentines appointed as their captain
51Pagolo Vitelli, a most prudent man, who from a private position had risen to the greatest renown. If this man had taken
52Pisa, nobody can deny that it would have been proper for the Florentines to keep in with him, for if he became the
53soldier of their enemies they had no means of resisting, and if they held to him they must obey him. The Venetians, if
54their achievements are considered, will be seen to have acted safely and gloriously so long as they sent to war their
55own men, when with armed gentlemen and plebians they did valiantly. This was before they turned to enterprises on land,
56but when they began to fight on land they forsook this virtue and followed the custom of Italy. And in the beginning of
57their expansion on land, through not having much territory, and because of their great reputation, they had not much to
58fear from their captains; but when they expanded, as under Carmignuola,[5] they had a taste of this mistake; for, having
59found him a most valiant man (they beat the Duke of Milan under his leadership), and, on the other hand, knowing how
60lukewarm he was in the war, they feared they would no longer conquer under him, and for this reason they were not
61willing, nor were they able, to let him go; and so, not to lose again that which they had acquired, they were compelled,
62in order to secure themselves, to murder him. They had afterwards for their captains Bartolomeo da Bergamo, Roberto da
63San Severino, the count of Pitigliano,[6] and the like, under whom they had to dread loss and not gain, as happened
64afterwards at Vaila,[7] where in one battle they lost that which in eight hundred years they had acquired with so much
65trouble. Because from such arms conquests come but slowly, long delayed and inconsiderable, but the losses sudden and
66portentous. [2] Battle of Caravaggio, 15th September 1448. [3] Johanna II of Naples, the widow of Ladislao, King of
67Naples. [4] Giovanni Acuto. An English knight whose name was Sir John Hawkwood. He fought in the English wars in France,
68and was knighted by Edward III; afterwards he collected a body of troops and went into Italy. These became the famous
69"White Company." He took part in many wars, and died in Florence in 1394. He was born about 1320 at Sible Hedingham, a
70village in Essex. He married Domnia, a daughter of Bernabo Visconti. [5] Carmignuola. Francesco Bussone, born at
71Carmagnola about 1390, executed at Venice, 5th May 1432.
🎉 全部完成！共 71 行